When Brighton city leaders set out to help residents better understand how public dollars are raised and spent, they faced a challenge familiar to many local governments. Their detailed 100-page financial report was not written for everyday use. A te...
Recent years have seen increasing concerns over the state of democracy in the US, with a majority of Americans believing it to be under threat. Using data from an annual survey, Stephanie Leiser, Debra Horner, and Natalie Fitzpatrick find that local ...
Your sharp-tongued editor is here to tackle the thorny issue of public trust in U.S. law enforcement, or, as it’s increasingly known, the public distrust in U.S. law enforcement. Because, oh, brilliant, it seems that after years of national conversat...
Students working with the University of Michigan’s Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) have created a system to help a Michigan commission collect and analyze public comments about drawing Michigan’s congressional and state legislative ...
At a time when many of us are concerned about the strength of democracy in the U.S. and around the world, CLOSUP's research tells us that democracy remains strongest at the local level. Every day, in jurisdictions across the state, local officials interact with residents to help determine community priorities, allocate funds for services, hear complaints and resolve disputes, register voters, and much more.
This report presents the assessments of Michigan’s local government leaders, local chiefs of police, and county sheriffs on the interactions and relationships between law enforcement and Michigan communities. In addition, these local leaders, plus co...
